A Rare Georgia Bird Is Seen

Like most bird lovers, I feed birds. I have a double shepherd's hook stuck in the holly hedge just outside my workroom window. The hook holds a lantern bird feeder and a water dish.
One morning last week, I stared at a strange bird sitting on the edge of the feeder. I'd never seen such an amazing bird. It reminded me of an Indigo Bunting in size and shape, but it had a rosy-colored breast and rump, bright blue head, lime-green and brown wings, and a bright yellow patch across its shoulders. I was just mesmerized. The bird stayed on the feeder for about three minutes, then fluttered away. I wondered if I'd ever see it again.
My book about Georgia birds showed me a picture of a Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris). That was my strange bird. And here's what I learned:
The male Painted Buntings are the most spectacularly colored of all North American songbirds. This species has two distinct breeding populations in North America, but overall, it is rapidly disappearing from many of its nesting haunts near wetlands and rivers of coastal Georgia. The exact causes for the Painted Bunting's decline are not known, but they are believed to include habitat loss, cowbird parasitism, and trapping for the pet trade on its wintering
grounds.
The female Painted Buntings are not as brightly colored as the males, but they are also distinctive. The female has an overall greenish plumage which is more darkly colored above than below. Both birds are about 4-1/2 inches long with a small, conical bill. Its diet consists mostly of seeds and insects, and they forge mostly on the ground or in a low bush. But my painted bunting was on my bird
feeder!!!
It takes two years for a male Painted Bunting to become a brilliantly colored songbird. Many people are unaware that this small colorful finch is a native songbird that migrates in late April from southern Florida, the Caribbean Islands, and Mexico to its nesting areas in the U.S. (And mine showed up the first week of March!) Painted buntings nest along the coastal areas of Florida north to North Carolina, but they also nest inland near large coastal rivers in these states. In some areas, they use abandoned farmland, open woodlands adjacent to pastures, and hedges associated with farming. My Painted Bunting seemed happy to have found my holly hedge.
There's a cooperative program entitled the Southeastern Atlantic Painted Bunting Conservation Initiative (SAPABUCI), which was formed in 2001 to address the research and management needs of Painting Bunting populations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Through this group, people are cooperating in planning future research of the Bunting that will benefit the recovery of its population.
The Painted Bunting is also on the Audubon WatchList and is identified as an extremely high priority species in Partners in Flight's Bird Conservation Plan for the South Atlantic Coastal Plain.
So, now you can see why I've become so excited about the little Painted Bunting that landed on my bird feeder. And you know what? I did see him again. . .just this morning. Maybe he'll keep coming back. I'm sure going to keep feeding him.
Check out some of our library books and enjoy birding for yourself.

• Birding by Joseph Michael Forshaw R598.07234 (in the Reference Section)
• The Bird Feeder Guide by Marcus Schneck 598.2S
• Birdwatching by Rob Hume 598.072H
• How to Attract Birds by Michael D. McKinley 598.07M

(Sources: Audubon WatchList, http://audubon2.org/watchlist; Myers, J. Michael, 2004, Bird without equal: The story of Georgia's Painted Bunting, http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/pabu/)